Until You Name It

Okay…here it is. This is going on all around us and I believe it is a product of the Information Age.

There is a claim going around on this new-fangled thing the kids call “the internet”. The claim is that 90% of all the data that exists today was generated over the last 2 years. Now, as I said in a previous post, it doesn’t really matter whether that is factually accurate or not, or whether such a claim is even measurable or verifiable. What matters is the truth that data is being generated at a velocity that is growing exponentially every year.

So here is the thing that needs a name. I am inviting you to participate in the labeling of this behavior. The label that we as a group put on this behavior may become part of the accepted language, the human lexicon, the culture and, when the historians speak of this time, the very essence of who we are as a people.

But no pressure.

The behavioral thing is this….

It is the tendency to form giant sweeping conclusions based on the availability of recently generated data while fully understanding that tomorrow you will be confronted with new data that may (dare I say “likely will”) contradict your conclusions today based on what will then be stale data from yesterday that will now be rightly regarded as incomplete….as soon as the sun rises tomorrow!

Confused? I understand. So I submit the video below to demonstrate the behavior in question.